Don McKay

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Don McKay (born 1942) is an award-winning poet, editor, and educator from Ontario, Canada.

Born in Owen Sound, Ontario in 1942, McKay was educated at the University of Western Ontario and the University of Wales, where he earned his PhD in 1971. After teaching creative writing and English for 27 years in universities including Western and the University of New Brunswick, McKay retired in 1996 to write full time and settled in Victoria, British Columbia with his partner, the poet and philosopher Jan Zwicky.

McKay is the author of twelve books of poetry, including Long Sault, Ledpendu, Birding, or Desire, Night Field, Apparatus, Another Gravity, and most recently Strike/Slip. He has twice won the Governor General's Award, for Night Field and Another Gravity, and has been shortlisted three times for the Griffin Poetry Prize, most recently for Strike/Slip.

Although publishing since 1973, literary writing on McKay's poetry is new, and much critical examination of his work is yet to be done. Currently, he is recognized most for his contributions as a prominent editor and teacher. He is the co-founder and manuscript reader for Brick Books, one of Canada's leading poetry presses, and was editor of the literary journal The Fiddlehead from 1991-96. He was also part of the Sage Hill Writing experience in Saskatchewan and at the Banff Centre for the Arts. He has edited many books by fellow poets, including Ken Babstock, George Elliot Clarke, Tim Lilburn, Barbara Colebrook Peace, and Michael Redhill.

McKay is an avid birdwatcher and bird themes and flight are dominant topics in his poetry. In Birding, or Desire, the quirky protagonist is never far from his Birds of Canada hobbyist's field guide. McKay's passion for birds and nature percolates throughout all of his work. McKay sees his writing as “nature poetry in a time of environmental crisis.”[1] McKay's poems are ecologically centred, inspired by the conflict between inspiration and spiritual, instinct and knowledge. Other members of this emerging group of “ecopoets” include Tim Lilburn, Dennis Lee, Roo Borson, Robert Bringhurst, and Jan Zwicky.

What is most remarkable in McKay's poems is his unique voice for metaphor; he is able to highlight in vivid clarity the non-human, extra-linguistic qualities of all aspects of life which he has named “wilderness.” His much acclaimed book of poetic philosophy Vis à Vis: Field Notes on Poetry & Wilderness, details many of McKay's beliefs on metaphor, wildness, and the homing instinct. McKay's essay “Baler Twine,” which touches on his main poetic themes as well as those of Matériel and poetic attention, is an insightful and comedic context in which to read his poems.

McKay knows and loves his birds, which is why he can see them clearly for what they are. He does not gesture to the humanness in nature; instead, he tries to recognize and value the wildness of nature, translating rather than appropriating.

McKay is currently writer in residence at University of Toronto. He was previously writer in residence at Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Contents

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Secondary Sources

  • Don McKay: Essays on His Works. Ed. Barlett, Brian. (2006)

[edit] References

  1. ^ (McKay, Don. Vis-à-Vis: Field Notes on Poetry & Wilderness. Wolfville: Gaspereau Press, 2001, p.9.

[edit] External links

See also: List of Canadian writers, List of Canadian poets

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